Believe yourself. Art. by L. Tolstoy

Believe to yourself, boys and girls coming out from childhood, when the questions first arise in your soul: who am I, why do I live, and why do all the people around me live?
And the main, most exciting question is  -   how I and all the people around me live? Trust yourself even when the answers that you will receive to these questions disagree with those that were instilled (прим. "внушение") in you as a child, and they disagree with the life in which you will find yourself living with all the people around you.
Trust yourself even when the answers that you will receive to these questions disagree with those that were instilled in you as a child, and they disagree with the life in which you will find yourself living with all the people around you.
Do not be afraid of this disagreement; on the contrary, know that in this disagreement with everything around you, the best that is in you is expressed — that divine principle, the manifestation of which in life is not only the main, but the only meaning of our existence.
Then believe not yourself, a famous person — Vanya, Petya, Lisa, Masha, the son or daughter of a tsar, minister or worker, merchant or peasant, but yourself, that eternal, reasonable and good principle that lives in each of us and which for the first time awakened in you and asked you these most important questions  in the world, questions are both sought and demanded to be resolved.
Then don't believe people who will tell you with a condescending smile that they once looked for answers to these questions, but they didn't find them, because you can't find any other than those that are accepted by everyone.
Don't believe it, but believe only yourself, and don't be afraid to disagree with the views and thoughts of people around you, unless your answers to the questions you face are based not on your personal desires, but on the desire to fulfill the purpose of your life, to fulfill the will of the power that sent you into life.
Believe in yourself, especially when the answers presented, - to you are confirmed by those eternal principles (вечные начала) of human wisdom expressed in all religious teachings and in the teaching of Christ closest to you in its highest spiritual meaning ("высшем духовном проявлении").
I remember how, when I was 15 years old, I was going through this time, when suddenly I woke up from the childish submission to other people's views, in which I had lived until then, and for the first time realized that I had to live on my own, choose the path myself, be responsible for my own life before the beginning that gave me her.
I remember that at that time, though vaguely, I deeply felt that the main goal of my life was to be good, in the sense of the Gospel, in the sense of self-denial and love.
I remember that I tried to live like this at the same time, but it didn't last long.
I didn't believe myself, but I believed all that impressive, self-confident, triumphant human wisdom that was being instilled into me consciously and unconsciously by everyone around me.
I did not believe myself then, and it was only after many decades spent achieving worldly goals that I either did not achieve or achieved and saw the futility,  and often harm of them that I realized that the very thing that I knew 60 years ago and did not believe then, and It can and should be the only reasonable goal of every person efforts.
I did not believe myself then, and it was only after many decades spent achieving worldly goals that I either did not achieve or achieved and saw the futility (бесполезность) ,  and often harm of them that I realized that the very thing that I knew 60 years ago and did not believe then, and It can and should be the only reasonable (разумная) goal of every person's efforts.
And what other life, more joyful for myself and more useful to people, could my life have been , if  when the voice of truth, God, spoke for the first time in my soul, which had not yet been tempted, I had believed that voice and given myself up to it?
Yes, dear ones, sincerely, independently, not under the influence of external suggestion (внушение) , but independently and sincerely awakening to the realization of the importance of your life, yes, do not believe people who will tell you that your aspirations are just unfulfilled dreams of youth, that they also dreamed and what they aspired to, but this life I soon showed them that this has its own requirements and that we should not fantasize about what our life could be like, but try to coordinate our actions with the life of the existing society in the best possible way and try to be only a useful member of this society.